Workshop

Scalpers are a menace in a lot of hobbies, not just in the realm of gaming hardware and paraphernalia. Still, they’ve been especially bad here in recent years. Flipping phantom graphics cards, snapping up special editions, and ruining cute exhibits meant for children. Games Workshop, the company behind Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, are certainly no exception to this rule: If you want to release a thing, scalpers’ll probably ruin it.

The thing in question this time is the special edition of Siege of Terra: Era of Ruin, which is the latest instalment in the Horus Heresy (now the Siege of Terra) books. Games Workshop opened up pre-orders via a queue system on its website, designed to stop scalpers armed with armies of bots spoiling the whole thing.

Then scalpers armed with armies of bots spoiled the whole thing. On the same day, Games Workshop hit the panic button and took its entire website down to stem the tide (thanks, Wargamer). As an official post on the company’s Facebook reads:

“You might have noticed that we’ve paused Warhammer.com for a short period—here’s why:

“Today we launched our pre-order for the much-anticipated special edition of Siege of Terra: Era of Ruin anthology. Unfortunately, scalpers attempted to use bots to bypass our normal safeguards.”

The bots, which the post later calls an “abominable intelligence if there ever was one”—comparing these bots to the Silica Animus which is, and I mean this lovingly, a dunk that only people whose bedrooms smell of mini paint will get—forced Games Workshop to pull the plug.

“We’re pausing the launch of Era of Ruin and have removed it from Warhammer.com for the time being. Don’t worry, it’s still coming—we’re just absolutely determined that real fans get it. All erroneous orders are being purged. This is our number one priority.”

(Image credit: The Warhammer Facebook page.)

Fans looking to get a leather-bound anthology can instead sign up for an emailing list to find out when “the re-launch happens”.

The Horus Heresy is one of Games Workshop’s most prolific series, with over 60(!) books comprising the entire saga. This one in particular’s an anthology, with tales from a whole regiment of prior authors featured in the Horus Heresy—and it’s slated to come out in July. Whether anyone’ll be able to get their hands on a special edition, though, only the Omnissiah knows.

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A beefy new update for Civilization 7 is coming soon, featuring “several long-awaited features” including Large and Huge maps, new advanced game options, town specializations, and Steam Workshop support.

The full low-down for those who want to dive deep is up on the Civilization website, but here’s the crash course version:

Large and Huge map sizes, with a note that “bigger maps have bigger hardware demands,” so you may notice slower turn times or performance drops while playing on them
New Advanced Game Options including selectable crisis types, customizable AI difficulty, and the ability to bypass Civ unlocks so you can select from any civilization during age transitions
Steam Workshop support for better mod support, with documentation, “best practices,” and a few example mods made by members of the development team
New Town Specializations will see the addition of a new Resort Town, reworked Urban Center, and “small but meaningful” tweaks to other town types
New City-State Bonuses, Pantheons, and Beliefs: 24 new City-State bonuses, 2 new Pantheons, and a big batch of 14 new Religious Beliefs (across Founder, Reliquary, and Enhancer Beliefs)

Naturally, bug fixes, UI updates, and quality-of-life improvements are also in the works, along with “some surprises”—all will be revealed in the full patch notes, which are “coming soon.”

Firaxis also touched on what’s coming beyond this update, including some features targeted for July, and bigger-picture issues including overly abrupt Age transitions, lack of replayability, and a need to improve the “sense of empire identity and continuity throughout a multi-Age campaign.”

“These are significant areas of the game that are incredibly important to get right, but are more complex to solve,” Firaxis wrote. “Addressing this feedback in a satisfying way will take time, over the course of several updates. That said, you’ll start to see some smaller changes in July focused on end of Age countdowns and improvements to Age Transitions.

“For the longer-term and broader changes, we’ll share more detailed plans here when we’re ready. We’re invested in making these changes and empowering you to enjoy what sets Civ 7 apart.”

Civilization 7 has indeed struggled since its release earlier this year. It remains stuck with a “mixed” user rating on Steam, and user reviews are not currently headed in the right direction. Player numbers are also not where they should be: Civ 7’s concurrent player count on Steam is lagging well behind that of Civ 6 and, more worryingly, Civ 5. Strauss Zelnick, CEO of publisher Take-Two Interactive, said in May that the company is “really happy” with Civilization 7 overall, and that “in the fullness of time, it’ll be just great,” but how much time the company is willing to give it before it decides to move is the big question right now.

(Image credit: SteamDB)

Firaxis said it’s aiming to have the next update for Civ 7—update 1.2.2, if you’re tracking these things—on June 17, but for now that remains subject to change.

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Games Workshop hits the panic button, temporarily shuts down Warhammer site after scalpers descend upon it with ‘abominable intelligence’ and bots

A big Civilization 7 update is on the way with ‘large and huge maps,’ Steam Workshop support, and a promise to keep working on it